Exploring Potential Drug-Drug Interactions: A Cross-Sectional Study of 1 Million e-Prescriptions Across Medical Specialties in Shiraz, Iran (2021-2024).
Background: Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are among the most important medical errors that can lead to adverse effects, increased toxicity, or reduced treatment efficacy. The frequency and severity of DDIs vary across specialties. However, studies covering multiple specialties in Iran are few and no...
| Published in: | Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol. 51; no. 2; pp. 104 - 118 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
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Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
Feb2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=191787150&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 191787150 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 02530716 8TQH jtl: Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences issn: 02530716 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Feb2026 vid: 51 iid: 2 pid: 65846 pub: Shiraz University of Medical Sciences place: Shiraz, <Blank> artinfo: ui: 191787150 191787150 191787150 10.30476/ijms.2025.106551.4081 191787150 ppf: 104 ppct: 14 formats: tig: atl: Exploring Potential Drug-Drug Interactions: A Cross-Sectional Study of 1 Million e-Prescriptions Across Medical Specialties in Shiraz, Iran (2021-2024). aug: au: Porbaha, Pedram Hasannejad, Mohammad Ahvar, Negar Shafiekhani, Mojtaba Abolpour, Nahid Sharifi, Mehrdad affil: Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran sug: subj: Drug Interactions Evaluation Prescriptions, Drug Specialties, Medical Iran Prescribing Patterns Electronic Order Entry Human Iran Cross Sectional Studies Record Review Prevalence Software Programming Languages Dexamethasone Ketorolac Quetiapine Aspirin Naproxen Doxorubicin Prednisolone Tacrolimus Diclofenac Rheumatology Endocrinology Orthopedics Oncology Internal Medicine Emergency Service Psychiatry ab: Background: Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are among the most important medical errors that can lead to adverse effects, increased toxicity, or reduced treatment efficacy. The frequency and severity of DDIs vary across specialties. However, studies covering multiple specialties in Iran are few and not up-to-date. This study aims to fill this gap by offering a large-scale, multi-specialty analysis of DDIs in Iran using real-world e-prescription data. Methods: This study analyzed pharmacological DDIs in 1,049,769 e-prescription records from Shiraz, Iran, spanning from November 2021 to February 2024. We used Lexicomp® DDI checker software and Python programming language to identify the most prevalent DDIs overall, the top contributing drug specialties for each of those DDIs, the specialties with the highest rates of potential DDIs, and the most prevalent DDI within each specialty. Results: The analysis revealed that 38.77% of prescriptions contained at least one C, D, or X DDI. Dexamethasone, ketorolac, quetiapine, and aspirin were the drugs most commonly involved. The most frequent DDIs occurred between aprepitant and dexamethasone, ketorolac, and naproxen, aprepitant and doxorubicin, prednisolone, and tacrolimus, and diclofenac sodium and ketorolac. The medical specialties with the highest incidence of D or X level DDIs were rheumatology, endocrinology, orthopedics, oncology, internal medicine, emergency services, and psychiatry. The average counts of D or X DDIs per prescription were 0.53, 0.41, 0.40, 0.40, 0.26, 0.24, and 0.23, respectively. Conclusion: This study underscores the need for provider vigilance and proactive measures, such as training and e-prescription alerts, to ensure patient safety. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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